Tentpole Trauma
A podcast where we look at movies that came with hype and high hopes, but left with crushing disappointment, either critically, at the box office, or both.
- Update frequency
- every 10 days
- Average duration
- 92 minutes
- Episodes
- 158
- Years Active
- 2020 - 2025
The Island of Dr. Moreau (1996)
H.G. Wells’ tale of genetic tampering had been adapted for the big screen before Richard Stanley attempted it again in 1996, but never before had a version gone so horribly awry. Plagued by misbehavi…
The Man from U.N.C.L.E.
The stardom of both Henry Cavill and cannibal fetishist Armie Hammer was on the rise in 2015, making it the perfect time to team them up in a buddy spy movie directed by Guy Ritchie. But despite a so…
The Saint
Val Kilmer was riding high as a leading man in 1997, so it made sense that he’d try his hand at establishing his own globetrotting espionage role. Sadly the resulting reimagining of the 60s British T…
Scream 4
The Scream franchise may have been dormant for over ten years, but hopes were still high for Wes Craven and company’s 2011 remake-era reboot, Scream 4. But despite returning stars Neve Campbell, Cour…
Super Mario Bros. (1993)
Based on the beloved Nintendo side scroller, the 1993 live action Super Mario Bros. movie was poised to prove the viability of video games making the jump to the big screen. Sadly, despite boasting t…
Dungeons and Dragons (2000)
An adaptation of TSR’s seminal role playing was long in the cards, or the 20 sided dice as it were, but it wasn’t until the year 2000 that the first big screen effort was launched. Unfortunately Cour…
Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me
The Legend of Billie Jean
Blow Out
With a director at the height of his game and a star at the early peak of his fame, Blow Out, directed by Brian De Palma and starring John Travolta, was poised to be one of the big hits of 1981. But …
Posse
The 90s saw a resurgence in the western genre, though none of the many offerings outside of Clint Eastwood’s Unforgiven were major hits. Unfortunately that held true for Mario Van Peebles’ Posse, whi…
Heaven's Gate
Not to be confused with the 90s death cult of the same name, Michael Cimino’s Heaven’s Gate, was, for a time, synonymous with the words “box office bomb”. Credited with ending the auteur driven studi…
Clue
The Dark Tower
Stephen King's The Dark Tower fantasy series has been a long-gestating white whale project in Hollywood, passing through countless development hands and having many promising false starts. Hopes were…
Showgirls
Madman director Paul Verhoeven was riding high off of several blockbuster successes when he re-teamed with Basic Instinct writer and fellow madman Joe Ezterhaus for a film about the sordid lives of L…
Masters of the Universe
He-Man and the Masters of the Universe may have been past their prime by 1987, but that didn’t stop shlockmeisters Golan and Globus from capitalizing on the popular toy and cartoon property by attemp…
Stir of Echoes
Spirits were high for A list screenwriter David Koepp’s sophomore directorial outing, an adaptation of the Richard Matheson short story A Stir of Echoes. But despite the presence of leading man Kevin…
The Happening
Following the high profile failure of Lady In the Water, famed director M. Night Shyamalan ignored the naysayers and doubled down on absurd high concepts with 2008’s The Happening. The results were r…
Tentpole Triumph: Avatar
It’s a post Christmas miracle from Pandora — Tentpole Trauma sees you, and you’ve been very nice this year, so as a gift we give you this month’s Tentpole Triumph discussion of Avatar as a bonus epis…
Alita: Battle Angel
Many expected that James Cameron’s long promised adaptation of the famed manga Battle Angel Alita would never materialize, but when the megastar director conceded the reigns to Robert Rodriguez, the …
Willow (1988)
How do you follow up the wildly successful original Star Wars trilogy? If you’re George Lucas, you get your buddy Ron Howard to direct a Lord of the Rings riff starring Val Kilmer and the actor who p…